College Football Betting: Three Things To Know Heading Into Week 2 of the 2022 Season

Well, if you want to know what college football is all about, Week 1 hit the nail right on the head. We had 100-point totals, great teams emasculating half-baked programs who were selling their dignity for a couple million dollars, some bizarre performances (shoutout Iowa winning 7-3) and the piece de resistance: college kickers.

There truly is no factor that separates the NFL from college more than the kicking game. You stick a 19-year-old out in front of 20,000 people with everything on the line and so many of them melt like a snow cone in the Sahara. It’s majestic, frightening and infuriating (especially for gamblers and fans) all at the same time. And between ECU’s missed extra point that would have tied it up with NC State and LSU’s incredible special teams failures (poor Brian Kelly, maybe pissing off Jesus isn’t a good idea), we got some truly spectacular kicking mistakes.

But now we’re onto a new week with more challenges and some better games (hopefully...ND-OSU ended up being a dud last week). Here are three things to know!

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1. The College Football Playoff field is already shrinking rapidly

Last week, I teed up the fact that Week 1 could legitimately take some teams out of playoff consideration. And, while It’s slightly hyperbolic to end title chances because of one loss, I think it has some truth to it.

Sure, if Utah, Oregon and Notre Dame win out the rest of the year, there’s a chance of some playoff consideration, but the Irish would need USC and Clemson to still be “good wins” come December and the Pac-12 delegitimized themselves once again between Utah losing to an unranked SEC squad and Oregon putting in a performance so bad you might have wondered whether they suited up a local high school team.

Every week will have its own twists and turns that make us overreact and I’ll inevitably say nonsense that ends up sounding idiotic soon after the fact, so take it all with a grain of salt. But I’m here to grab eyeballs so I might as well go for “shock and awe.”

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2. SEC continues its path of destruction

Based on the slate, I’m not sure anyone would be surprised that the SEC went 13-1 collectively last week. In fact, with Florida and Arkansas pulling out wins, I think 14-0 probably should have been the result (shout out to Brian Kelly once again, whose tenure at LSU is destined to end terribly).

That said, the SEC put the biggest stamp on the weekend and proved, for the bazillionth time, that nobody really has the talent or depth that they do. UGA’s striking 49-3 win over 11th-ranked Oregon was the flashiest result, but UF beating seventh-ranked Utah, despite not even being in the Top 25, probably embodied the gulf in quality the best. Even the best-coached teams with top skill players and recent success simply don't bring in the same caliber of talent as good SEC schools (especially at the less flashy positions), and the national championship may simply be decided by who survives the SEC conference gauntlet.  

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3. Week 1 results: Fool's gold or the real deal? 

The best part about Week 1 is that we get a real glimpse of teams for the first time, which gives us more information to use in our gambling decisions. The problem, though, is that one game never paints a complete picture. Not only is it hard to glean much of anything from a game like Alabama’s 55-0 victory over Utah State (surprise, Alabama is better), it’s also easy to overreact, good or bad, to how each squad looked.

Do I have a solution to fix that problem? Not at all. We’re all still learning on the fly and it’s up to each of us to dig deeper into the statistics and performances to decide how much one game says about a team overall. But be aware that not all victories are made equal, especially for programs who opted to start with a tune-up game in Week 1 to shake the rust off, and not every loss sets the tone for the rest of the year. Reality might set in quickly when a real unit is standing on the other side of the field instead of a packet of Rice (yes, I’m looking at you, USC).